Other Food Allergies

sunmaid raisins

I was told a couple of months ago by two different sunmaid reps that anyone with peanut allergies should avoid the 1 oz bag size(raisins), the 1 oz box 6 pack (raisins), and any of their fruit in zipper reclosable bags. The 1.5 oz carton is ok. Not sure if they have changed their labeling yet, but this was not indicated on the labels. I did inform FAAN to look into it. Has anyone else had a similar response?

My little girl had these at church this morning. She only ate half of them. By the time church was out she had a few hives. A couple of hours later she had big welps all over her legs and back. We tried to figure everything out. She didn't have anything she wasn't supposed to. Well tonight she ate the other half of the box. Sure enough she broke out again. I would have never dreamed it was the raisins. She eats these all the time. A women at church had the small box and I assumed they were safe as the bigger boxes are safe. You would think I would learn to never assume! This can really make you feel like a failure as a parent sometimes. I am so glad that this board is so supportive. If I hadn't seen the post about raisins I would still be trying to rack my brain. I will call the company in the morning to let them know about the reaction.

Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding Sun-Maid Products. We appreciate your concern over a possible connection between our product and you or your loved one's health. Our products are all labeled if they contain allergens.

We do package a few products that contain allergens and we do a thorough wash-down prior to running non-allergen containing products on these lines. A detailed list is provided below.

At a co-pack facility 1 ounce bags raisins are packed on the same line as 1 ounce bags of toffee coated peanuts. As noted above, the line is completely washed down after the toffee coated peanuts are run, before the
plain raisins are run.

In Sun-Maid's Mixed Commodities Packaging area, we package Yogurt Coated and Chocolate Yogurt Coated raisins. We ship the raisins to a candy factory where they coat them and return them to us. These two products have dairy components. The candy company also handles peanuts and tree nuts. We carry through their "May contain peanuts, tree nuts" statement on our packages. We package these products on two different lines. Again, we do a complete washdown after these products are run, before other products are run on these lines. These two products are packaged on a zipper recloseable bag line.
Our other dried fruit products with a zipper reclosure are run on the same line.
These two products are also packaged on line that packs 6-packs containing 1 ounce boxes. Our other dried fruit products in 6-packs containing 1 ounce boxes are run on the same line. The ingredient listing on all our packages are complete and accurate, and
should be read carefully if there is any question of a possible allergic reaction. If you do have any questions, we suggest you contact your family physician.

I was told the bags of mini boxes, the 1.5 oz boxes in six pack and the round tub were the ones that were safe. I do not understand why they will not put a warning on the products that are not safe. I was also told that their raisins are grown right next to pecan trees.

I had told FAAN about this- does the new FALCPA (sp?) law compel manufacturers to label for likely contamination/ may contain? I need to research this further- will let you know- I hope we can compel Sunmaid to label for may contain- many of these machines were built many years ago and never made to be "thoroughly washed down"

here is what FAAN says about the new law-not much help- we will be more likely to have better success by many people urging the company directly to add shared lines to their labels like other manufacturers do

12. Will products after January 2006 have to label if the product is made on the same lines as peanuts or other allergens or remove the need for

i dont understand that if they use the same manufacturing lines as peanut products why dont they lable there products corectly?
i guess this is just another company i dont trust and wont purchace any of there products.

this just ticks me off. (id like to use a stronger word but id be sensored)

Yeah, it ticks me off too! Especially the raisins made after the toffee peanuts. I wasn't even going to read this post originally because I thought...raisins? come on, the package says they are just raisins. Ha! Good thing I found out.
And now I have to remember which ONE of the products I can buy? Forget it.

Dear Mrs. xxxxxx,
Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding Sun-Maid Products. We
appreciate your concern over a possible connection between our product
and you or your loved one's health.
Our products are all labeled if they contain allergens.

We do package a few products that contain allergens and we do a
thorough
wash-down prior to running non-allergen containing products on these
lines.
A detailed list is provided below.

At a co-pack facility 1 ounce bags raisins are packed on the same line
as 1 ounce bags of toffee coated peanuts. As noted above, the line is
completely washed down after the toffee coated peanuts are run, before
the
plain raisins are run.

In Sun-Maid's Mixed Commodities Packaging area, we package
Yogurt Coated and Chocolate Yogurt Coated raisins. We ship the raisins
to
a candy factory where they coat them and return them to us. These two
products have dairy components. The candy company also handles peanuts
and tree nuts. We carry through their "May contain peanuts, tree
nuts"
statement on our packages. We package these products on two different
lines. Again, we do a complete washdown after these products are run,
before other products are run on these lines.
These two products are packaged on a zipper recloseable bag line.
Our other dried fruit products with a zipper reclosure are run on the
same
line.
These two products are also packaged on line that packs 6-packs
containing 1 ounce boxes. Our other dried fruit products in 6-packs
containing 1 ounce boxes are run on the same line.
The ingredient listing on all our packages are complete and accurate,
and
should be read carefully if there is any question of a possible
allergic
reaction. If you do have any questions, we suggest you contact your
family
physician.

Thanks everyone for the replies- I'll be looking into Dole raisins too so that it will be easier for other family members not to have to worry about the "right size". What stores in the south (US) have you seen them in- did not see any at the Food Lion
Thanks!

I don't know if I can help much, but up here in northern IL, I find Dole at Dominiks(Safeway) and Jewel (Albertsons). Also at Woodman's, but I think that chain is only up north here (based in Wisconsin). I've seen them in 1.5 oz boxes, .5 oz boxes, a big bag, or a big resealable container.

the Wegmans grocery store chain will not sell dole raisins because they sell sunmaid raisins... but the lady from consumer affairs said that the more people who call and request dole raisins they will consider selling dole insted of sunmaid..
so everyone could you please call Wegmans at 1-800-wegmans and ask for consumer affairs dept!

if sun maid wont lable there products correctly im going to do my best boycott them in my aera.
thanks!

It gives me a headache just trying to figure out which size I can buy and can't buy! Forget it!!

I contacted the No Name/Loblaws/President's Choice company today and they told me the bag I had was safe (no peanuts/TN in factory) but I needed the bar code of the other bags to find out if they were safe too. Argh.

OK I just reviewed this post to make sure what we have in the house is safe (it is), went to write down that we should look for Dole raisins at the store and realized I have written down on my safe list:
Dole canned fruit, fruit bowls, and fruit n'gel bows (NO raisins, dates or prunes). Is this incorrect? We use sunsweet prunes for this reason. (I called on them FWIW).
Luvmyboys

Many companies use the *thorough wash-down* and then do not put a *may contain* warning. Kraft does. And that also means every name that Kraft sells under is *at risk*. For a lot of years I didn't trust that, and trust me, Kraft is near impossible to avoid in this day and age.

Any companies that you think you trust the labeling of -- ask very specifically -- do you have separate facilities, or do you wash down. Some csr's will claim not to know, others will grudgingly tell you they wash down.

The fact that Sunmaid does carry through a may contain warning makes me think they are thoroughly cleaning. And taking the risk seriously.

Quote:I hope we can compel Sunmaid to label for may contain- many of these machines were built many years ago and never made to be "thoroughly washed down"

Alliedhealth, do you know this for a fact specifically with sunmaid? I don't honestly know anything about this company, so I'm not arguing the point -- just wondering if you are assuming it, know it to be true about a lot of companies, or know it to be true specifically about Sunmaid.

The response of the two reps was both times was to tell me to avoid the products I mentioned above- however, if you read the written response to mommamia8 you will note that they do mention doing a "thorough wash-down" after these runs. They had not mentioned this to me, only to avoid these products when I asked about cross-contamination risks of any of their products for my son's peanut allergy.If they are telling me to avoid these items, I am grateful that they are disclosing it to me, but wish that if this is a known risk (such that they would disclose it) that they would also label for it for the rest of this community.

I do wish to clarify that when talking about wash-downs of manufacturing machines, I am speaking of these machines in general based upon what I have read in reputable journal articles and allergy publications. Good point that perhaps Sunmaid may have machines made to be disassembled...

[This message has been edited by alliedhealth (edited July 04, 2006).]

[This message has been edited by alliedhealth (edited July 04, 2006).]

I have to post this. We were babysitting our friend's child who had a very bad reaction to the raisins in the small boxes. After just one raisin he started having a cough which developed into labored breathing, which was followed by facial flushing and hives. This was very much similar to times when he was exposed to peanuts. He could have gone into anaphylactic shock if we didn't have the epi pens. We had to use two. I am contemplating suing, because how else are we going to get Sun Maid to label their products appropriately. As I am reading the prior complaints, it is apparent that they don't care.